Markham looked around. “Is there someplace we can talk? A conference room or…?” He left the sentence for her to finish.
Olivia’s first thought was her office, but it was small and possibly messy, and a conference room was a much better idea. She hesitated for a second before asking, “Should I get our manager to accompany us?”
He shook his head. “No, no need. Just you.”
“Okay. Follow me.” She led Markham back toward the front desk where she introduced Stephanie, who somehow managed to keep her face carefully blank, though Olivia could see the wideness of her eyes. “We’ll be in the conference room around the corner.”
“You’re not fully booked,” Markham said, as he walked next to Olivia, and she felt her heart drop. “But it seems you’ve got a really nice crowd.” The way to the conference room took them past Split Rail, so he could see all the patrons in the restaurant and at the bar.
Relieved, she nodded. “We have a really good reputation with the local residents and we get a lot of them in for dinners and holiday events. Our rooftop bar is also pretty full. People will be up there at midnight to watch the fireworks display.”
“You’ll have to show me after we sit down.”
Okay, that seemed at least a little bit positive, right? He wouldn’t fire her and then expect her to show him around more. Would he?
Olivia used her master key card and let them into the small conference room and closed the door behind them. They each took a seat. Markham set his briefcase on the table and loud snaps cut through the air as he opened the fasteners. From inside, he pulled out a folder, and from that folder, a small stack of papers.
Wordlessly, he slid the papers toward Olivia and pulled out a second small stack—which she assumed was a duplicate—for himself.
When she looked down at the top sheet, her blood ran cold. It was a printout of an email. The recipient was Benton Markham. The sender was Hayley Boyd. The body of the email consisted of one sentence.
Here’s the report we discussed.
—H
And below that was Olivia’s entire proposal for changes to the Evergreen, complete with cost analysis and budgeting suggestions. Hayley had done exactly what Olivia had thought: She’d taken Olivia’s work and sent it in to Corporate on her own.
Benton Markham folded his hands on top of his papers and looked at Olivia, his eye contact intense. “I’d like to talk about this.”
Chapter Twenty-Two
“Guin. Listen.” Hayley stood up, crossed the office to where Guinevere now stood, and reached out and touched her upper arm. She looked a little bit lost, a little bit confused, and a little bit sad. Briefly, Hayley wondered if she would’ve preferred Guin to be angry because then maybe she herself would’ve felt better. Less guilty. Less awful. Guinevere faced her, forced a watery smile, her blue eyes much dimmer than they’d been earlier.
“It’s okay,” she said quietly. She nodded once, and it was obvious it took effort on her part to keep the smile in place. “I jumped in with both feet. Way too fast.” She lifted one shoulder in a half shrug and let go of a bitter chuckle. “It’s kind of what I do.”
A million things zipped through Hayley’s mind in that moment, a million responses, a million things to say to make Guin feel better. But she stopped herself, because she knew that anything remotely positive or anything that attempted to contradict what Guin had observed about herself would open the door just enough for her to kick her way in. That was the last thing Hayley wanted. So she said the only thing she could think of. “I’m sorry.”
Guinevere tipped her head to the side and again tried to smile. “I know.”
They stood quietly, eye to eye, for what seemed like a long time. Finally, Guinevere took a deep breath and seemed to visibly shake off her sadness. She glanced at the expensive watch on her slim wrist.
“Well, if I leave now, I can probably get to Carlo’s party in time for midnight.” Hayley had no doubt Guinevere would easily find somebody to kiss when the ball dropped. She wouldn’t be alone for long. She never was.
“The roads should be pretty clear, yeah?” When all else fails, talk about the weather or the driving conditions. Hayley internally rolled her eyes at herself.
“They should, yes.” They stood for another moment, then Guinevere stepped forward and wrapped Hayley in a hug. The familiar floral scent of her designer perfume filled Hayley’s nostrils as she hugged her back. Not too tightly, but not too loosely. “You take care of yourself, Hayley,” Guin said softly, her lips close to Hayley’s ear. When they parted, she held on to Hayley’s shoulders. “And fix whatever mess you made with that girl.”
Hayley felt her eyebrows raise up toward her hairline.
Guin gave a snort. “Please. I saw how you looked at her.” Picking up her coat from the chair where she’d draped it, she slid an arm into a sleeve. “You should go find her. It’s New Year’s Eve.” With that, she gave another tentative smile and took her leave.
Hayley followed her out of the office, staying a few steps behind, and Guinevere never looked back as she made her way across the lobby, through the small groupings of guests. Some were moving, some were standing in little cliques and talking, but the feeling in the air was palpable. Excitement. Anticipation. Joy.
She had to find Olivia.
Stephanie was poking at keys on her keyboard as she checked in a guest, her back to Hayley. Stepping up behind her, Hayley asked quietly enough so only Stephanie could hear her, “Do you know where Olivia is?”
Stephanie turned to look at her and held her gaze. Hayley swallowed hard beneath it, as this was so very obviously what she would call a mama-bear stare.
“I know,” Hayley said. “I know. I really need to talk to her.”
Stephanie stared for another beat or two before giving in, obviously not happy to. “A guy from Corporate showed up to talk to her.” She turned back to her keyboard and poked more keys.
Hayley’s brow furrowed. “From Corporate? Why didn’t you tell me?”
The poking stopped. The stare returned. “Because he didn’t ask for you. He asked for Olivia.”
Hayley blinked at her, having no idea what to make of this information, wondering why her father—or somebody—hadn’t given her a heads-up. “And?” she asked Stephanie. “Where are they?”
“Conference room.” Stephanie turned back to the guest and spoke to him with cheerful apology.
Conference room. Hayley bolted out from behind the front desk and hurried across the lobby, dodging and weaving, smiling at guests but doing her best to move quickly enough that she wouldn’t be expected to stop and chat. People were coming in through the glass double doors of the front entrance. Some milled around, some joined what seemed like a flowing river of bodies heading for Split Rail. Any other time, Hayley might have stopped and marveled at how busy they were. But right now, all she wanted was to see Olivia, to look in her eyes, to explain.
God, what if she can’t forgive me?
Hayley didn’t want to think about that, but she knew it was a possibility. She’d lied. A lot. Right to Olivia’s face. On more than one occasion. Yes, she had good reason, but still. A lie was a lie. Lies broke trust, and Olivia had trusted her. How was she going to come back from that?
The simmering anger she felt toward her father when all of this began seemed to heat up until it was closer to a boil. As she reached the conference room door, she thought about how she was going to have some choice words for him the next time she saw him. That was for sure. She took a deep breath, rapped on the door with her knuckles, then turned the knob and entered the room—and stopped dead in her tracks.
Blinked.
Stared.
Blinked some more.
“Hello, Hayley,” he said, from where he sat at the table across from Olivia.
Hayley swallowed hard, found her voice. “Hi, Dad.”
Olivia’s dark eyes went so wide it was almost comical. “Dad?” she asked, in glaringly obvious disbelief. She p
ointed across the table at Benton Markham. “This is your father?”
And right then, Hayley realized that was yet one more lie added to the giant pile in the middle of the room.
“Jesus, Dad, you didn’t tell her?”
Something weird happened then, something Hayley had never seen in her entire life. Her father, Benton Markham, self-made millionaire and head of one of the biggest resort empires in the country, looked chagrined. And ashamed. And sorry.
Before Hayley could get her bearings, before she could wrap her brain around that weird turn of events, it got weirder. He stood up, took the four steps to reach her, and wrapped her in a tight hug without saying a word.
She almost struggled. She almost tried to wiggle out of his grasp. It had been so long since she’d felt her father’s arms around her, holding her, protecting her, that it seemed foreign. Wrong somehow. But seconds went by and he held on. Then more seconds. And Hayley felt herself slowly relax. The familiar spicy scent of his aftershave—the same one he’d worn ever since Hayley could remember—enveloped them, spoke to her of love and safety like it had when she was little.
What is happening?
Then she felt him press a kiss to the top of her head, stroke her hair with his big hand, and she was mortified to feel tears spring into her eyes. She swallowed hard, got herself just about under control, and then he yanked the emotional rug right out from underneath her.
“I’m sorry, Hayley,” he said. His lips moved against her hair, and his voice was so quiet and gentle, Hayley wondered if Olivia could hear him at all or if she was still simply sitting there in confused anger. “I’m so sorry for everything. I’ve been so hard on you—some of it deserved, mind you,” and he chuckled at that, “but mostly not. I just…” He stopped talking and Hayley could hear him swallow.
She pulled back to look up into his eyes and was shocked to see unshed tears shimmering there. “Dad…”
He didn’t let go of her, but shifted his gaze toward the ceiling in what seemed to be an attempt to collect himself. “I miss your mother so much,” he said as he returned his gaze to her, and Hayley felt her own tears well up, her own lump lodge itself in her throat. “And you are so much like her. You look like her. God, you sound like her. You’re stubborn like her.” They both grinned at that. “I know I haven’t handled that well. I couldn’t. It was just…it was too hard. But…” He hesitated and Hayley waited patiently, somehow understanding how difficult saying these words to her was for him. “I forgot that you lost her, too. You know? I was so caught up in my own grief, so flattened by it, that I couldn’t seem to remind myself that I had you. That you’d lost your mom and could really use your dad around to help with that.” He looked down at his shoes then, shaking his head slowly.
Hayley blinked several times, her own tears spilling over and down her cheeks as she stood there, trying to reconcile how she’d never, ever in her life seen her father look the way he did in that moment: ashamed.
“Do you remember our trips to Key West when you were little?”
Hayley nodded, not trusting her voice.
“I was there yesterday. I was standing on the beach, looking out at the water, and I could see you playing in the sand. In your little frilly pink bathing suit with your plastic toys, working so hard on your sandcastle, your little tongue poking out while you concentrated. And as I stood there, lost in my own memories, I heard your mother’s voice.” He looked at Hayley, his dark eyes wide with surprise. “Like she was standing right next to me, I heard her, and she reminded me of what’s important in life.”
Hayley couldn’t speak. Couldn’t find words. Couldn’t find her voice.
“I came here today for two reasons. The biggest one was to ask your forgiveness. For not being there for you since she passed. For making things harder on you. For not listening to you. I love you so much, Hayley. I need you to know that.” He cleared his throat, and his voice went very, very quiet. “Can you ever forgive me?”
They were words Hayley hadn’t even realized she’d been waiting for, waiting to hear. “Of course I can.” She stepped back into his arms, wrapped her own around him. “I love you. You’re my dad. Of course I can.”
Hayley wasn’t sure how long they stayed like that, father and daughter in a warm, loving embrace. She’d have happily stayed that way for hours, making up for lost time. Finally, she loosened her grip on him, extricated herself, and took a step back so she could look up into his eyes. He smiled down on her with more love than she’d felt from him in much too long.
Something occurred to her then. “What was the second reason?”
His thick, dark brows knit together above his nose. “Pardon?”
“You said you came here for two reasons. What was the second one?”
“Oh!” His eyes went wide and his face lit up as he turned back to the table and began shuffling through papers.
Hayley felt something akin to a jolt of surprise as she remembered that Olivia was still sitting there. She was chewing on her bottom lip and looked slightly uncomfortable. Because why wouldn’t she? She met Hayley’s eyes and Hayley gave her a small smile. She did not return it.
“The second reason,” her father said, as he sat back down, “was to meet this woman whose praises you sang so loudly.”
That got Olivia’s attention. Her dark brows lifted and she sat up a little straighter in her chair as she cleared her throat. “I’m sorry?”
Benton tapped a finger on the packet of papers he’d given to Olivia where it still sat on the table in front of her. “Yes, absolutely. Hayley emailed this to me earlier in the week. She told me how hard you’d worked on it, how much the Evergreen means to you. She said you’re the one who should have the manager job.” He glanced down at his own copy, flipping through a couple of pages. “She’s not wrong. This is excellent work.”
Olivia made no comment, just sat there looking dumbstruck. Blinking. Hayley had to admit that she liked seeing Olivia surprised in a good way.
Hayley’s father folded his hands and placed them on the table, a move she knew meant serious talk was coming.
“I’m going to be completely up front with you, Ms. Santini. I haven’t had a lot of faith in this resort. It’s been the last one on my mind for a long time, and I’ve been entertaining the idea of either shutting it down or selling it off or both for more than a year now.”
If that surprised Olivia, she hid it well. Hayley stood off to the side watching her face. Her expression stayed neutral. Her body language didn’t change. She gave one nod.
“But reading your proposal, your suggested updates, your ways to improve profit ratios as well as the cost analysis you included…” Benton smiled, and Hayley recognized it as genuine, not one of his sharklike smiles he reserved for the moment he was about to eat somebody alive. “I’ve changed my mind.”
Olivia blinked and her brows raised again, this time clearly broadcasting her surprise, and rather than keeping her focus on Benton, she turned a shocked look toward Hayley—who felt the same way and took a step back to regain her equilibrium, as she felt suddenly off-balance.
“What?” Hayley asked.
Her father nodded and seemed absurdly pleased with himself and the reactions of the two women in the room. He held up the report. “I wasn’t kidding when I said this was excellent work. You were right to send it directly to me. I have no idea how it kept getting lost among my staff. You can bet I’m going to do a little investigating around that.”
He looked from Hayley to Olivia and back, his smile still wide and still firmly in place. Then he put both palms on the table and pushed himself to his feet. “Listen, it’s New Year’s Eve and I know you two, as managers, have a lot to take care of. I’m going to get out of your hair, but I’ve decided to stay until Monday morning. I know tomorrow is a holiday, but I’d like to sit down with you and go over your new position, if you don’t mind.”
He was talking to Olivia, and for only the second time since Hayley had entered the ro
om, she spoke. “I was planning on working tomorrow anyway, so I’m happy to meet with you.”
“Perfect. I’ll text you in the morning. Meantime…” He snapped his briefcase shut. “I’m going to go check out Split Rail. The reviews on Yelp are stellar.”
“I recommend the filet,” Olivia said as she stood up and held her hand out to Benton. “Sir, I just want to say thank you so much. I’m still in a state of shock here, but I’ll be in better shape when we meet tomorrow. I promise.”
Hayley watched her father shake Olivia’s hand, and it was weird how perfect everything suddenly felt. Well. Almost everything.
“I’ll see you later?” he asked, as he sidled past Hayley and put his hand on the doorknob. She nodded and then he was gone and she was alone in the room with Olivia.
Chapter Twenty-Three
“So,” Hayley said and made a face that came off as half smile, half grimace.
“So,” Olivia said, not sure where to even begin. Her head ached, it was so full of shock, questions, confusion, delight, disbelief.
They stood.
They stared.
“You’re a Markham.” Olivia said it quietly, barely above a whisper. At Hayley’s nod, she added, “Not just a Markham, you’re the daughter of the Markham.”
“Yes.”
More silence.
“You could have told me,” Olivia finally said, voicing the largest issue for her in five simple words.
“I know.” Hayley looked down at her shoes.
“You should have told me.” A much more accurate statement.
“I know,” Hayley said again.
One Walk in Winter Page 24
